Pa. hunting license system gets bogged down by demand for antlerless licenses

Lines have been long today for deer hunting licenses across Pennsylvania.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission opened sales on Pennsylvania general hunting licenses and antlerless deer licenses at 8 a.m. Monday, and hunters waited in lines at sport shops and county treasurers' offices. They also waited on the agency’s online vendor, huntfish.pa.gov.

This is the first year that hunters can buy one antlerless license with their general license. In past decades, hunters were required to apply for antlerless deer licenses by mail to a county treasurer.

Bill Luffy, who co-owns Tudor Hook-n-Nook at Elk Creek Sports in Girard, Erie County, with his wife, Lisa Noble, and partner, Keith Eshbaugh, said they had 60 or 70 people waiting before the system opened at 8 a.m.

“The system went well for about an hour and half and then completely crashed,” he said. After about an hour, the system started processing licenses again, he said.

“At some points people online, I know there were 90,000 people (in the waiting queue) to be processed." By noon, he said, “it’s righted itself and thank goodness because I have about 50 cars in the lot, we’re really busy. Right now they (hunting licenses) are processing. I see green licenses going out the door as we speak."

The commission was able to identify some issues, and the system was recovering by late morning.

“People need to be patient,” said Travis Lau, communications director for the agency. “We apologize for that."

With antlerless licenses now available when hunters buy a general license, Lau said many hunters aren’t sure how quickly doe tags will sell out compared to last year.

Hunters can monitor the number of antlerless licenses that are available for their area at huntfish.pa.gov and click on the antlerless deer quota page. That information can help guide hunters about how soon they need to get their licenses.

For example, at noon Monday, the area around Erie County had 35,000 of its 37,000 antlerless licenses available and the Wildlife Management Unit 2C in the Somerset County area still had 86,0000 of its 88,000 licenses available. In southeastern Pennsylvania, WMU 5C still had 69,000 of its 70,000 licenses.

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“This is a new process for antlerless licenses, and they aren’t any existing sales patterns,” Lau said about not being able to give reassurances that hunters can wait until a certain time. “We don’t know how quickly some of these units might sell out,” he said.

There are more licenses to hunt doe this year. The Game Commission has allocated 1,095,000 antlerless deer licenses statewide for 2023-24, up from the 948,000 licenses allocated a year ago.

The antlerless sales right now are for residents of Pennsylvania. On July 10, nonresidents can also start purchasing an antlerless permit.

The second round of antlerless license sales begins July 24. Residents and nonresidents are eligible. A hunter can get a second license in the second round for any WMU where tags are available.

The third round will begin Aug. 14. The sale of Deer Management Assistance Program permits also will begin on this date. A hunter can get a third license in the third round.

Then, in the fourth round beginning Aug. 28, a hunter can buy additional licenses until reaching his or her personal limit of six. Additional licenses, if available, then can be purchased after the season begins, as the hunter harvests antlerless deer and reports them.

In each round, antlerless license sales won’t begin until 8 a.m.

Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him at bwhipkey@gannett.com and sign up for our weekly Go Outdoors PA newsletter email on this website's homepage under your login name. Follow him on Facebook @whipkeyoutdoors,Twitter @whipkeyoutdoors and Instagram at whipkeyoutdoors.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Buying a Pennsylvania hunting license and antlerless license together